Students of St. Stephen's Episcopal School who are drawn to nature and wilderness adventures find satisfying experiences in the Devil's Canyon Wilderness Program (DCWP), named after a canyon in the 400-acre St. Stephen's campus. Much of the program's training and study takes place on the school's unspoiled Hill Country acres, but students and faculty also participate in wilderness expeditions throughout Texas, the Southwest, Mexico, and the world. Participants train for wilderness trips and learn wilderness ethics during trimester-long, after-school classes. Students learn to plan for and execute all aspects of trips, including survival skills, gear, first aid, and low-impact techniques. The program offers instruction in a variety of outdoor activities, from backpacking to mountain biking. Students earn a sports credit for caving and rock climbing. The DCWP is housed in a student-built, 1,600-square-foot, straw-bale house that is used for training, the DCWP library, and gear storage. Also available in Clayton Gymnasium is the Ritt Kellogg Climbing Wall, which is fully leadable and approximately 40 feet high by 20 feet wide. The wall is used for climbing and caving training.
In the past ten years, the DCWP has led students mountaineering in the Grand Tetons, backpacking in the canyons of Big Bend, hiking on the Colorado Plateau, caving in Tennessee, and climbing at El Potrero Chico, El Dorado Canyon, the Santa Catalinas, and Joshua Tree Monument. For more information about St. Stephen's Episcopal School, click here.Some of the more specific goals of the DCWP include the following:
-To further the school's primary mission of promoting "mind, body, and spirit" by putting students in wilderness situations in which they will experience intellectual, physical, and spiritual growth.
-To teach students the fundamentals of how to experience wilderness situations in a safe and environmentally responsible manner.
-To place students into situations in which they have to take the initiative, confront challenges, and deal with the consequences of their actions.
-To foster and develop the leadership skills of all participating students.
-To provide advanced instruction to students in more technical activities such as climbing and vertical caving.
-To encourage students to see relationships between the “academic world” and the natural world that they experience through participation in the DCWP.
Mission
